Here are 13 things I hate about blogging

1. The research I hate doing it

2. Testing out things you find and accidentally breaking my blog.. yep I’ve done it on occasion.

3. Making posts meaning full! Sometimes you want to post but making it quick and yet I don’t like to do that because I feel like it jips my readers!

4. Plugging! I hate having to do it but how else are you going to get readers? Readers should magically appear with no work I say :P

5. Designs - making sure you update your layout often enough but if you use a free template checking out other people who use it and see how they do it! or If you choose one thats all over the web.. having to change it once you realize it *coughs* :)

6. Spam! I hate spam. Since I’ve installed akismet its stopped over 130 spam comments.

7. Google - I hate google I hate page rank and how its become a must need for everything. But it happens

8. Alexa - its hard to raise your alexa score with out the redirect link even though most places use your alexa rank I think having rankings are annoying since I’m really competitive and have to be #1

9. Top Sites .. I hate joining them. My personal site is in the Rumbles because Amy asked me to join but I again have a horrendous competitive side and must win!

10. Blogging software - I love wordpress its my hero, but all the new updates for it and getting the plugins to work sometimes is annoying or when you find a plugin thats a must have and its in a foreign language :(

11. My old computer. - I do my site between home and work and I hate having to make sure I have everything at work on my home computer and so forth.

12. Content - I like blogs that are niches because content is easier to have..personal sites I just make a blog and never really do much with the content

13. The costs of blogging, cost of domain + hosting + time. Then logging into your adbrite and seeing how nice people are clicking and realizing 20 people clicked things and I made 2 dollars. Its depressing :(

This thursday post brought to by thursdaythirteen.com

I hate sifting through hundreds of sites to find just one decent wordpress theme. So I have collected a the list of beautiful, optimizeable! Just for these themes I made up a word :). Click the image for the download.
I also recommend not futzing with the images on the site unless you know graphics well, or try to talk to someone you know who is very good at graphics. I’ve gone to many websites where I know the theme it was originally beautiful and someone then took a hacksaw too it adding fonts that do not match, or just look childish. So even the smallest things make a big impact. I immediately left because I feel if they think that is a good representation of their content then their content must be as childish or poor. When in doubt go plain! I’d rather goto a website with a layout that is dull then one that is offensively ugly :\

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the guest entry written by Randa Clay. I think she did a marvelous job and I really felt that everyone responded nicely, and I offered her to guest blog at her convenience! I’m just very happy with it. I’ve emailed around and have requested other blogs I admire for them to guest write, and would love to have more variety on here.

I know I slacked off a bit on Saturday with no post and I apologize, I was a bit lazy getting obsessed with the xbox360 Rainbow 6 Vegas. That and working on my network which should be premiering soon. It’s been going well, and very smooth. I love how its turning out, there are a few tweaks which will work itself out as I expand and get money flow into it. However I think my premiere will come with a really nice contest to rumble up some activity!

I have been working on my consulting and I have to say part of being a new blogger is about content and expanding on your entries. Thats the hardest problem the woman I’m working with has, and I wanted to write about that today. I have a problem with that on my personal site but when it comes to a niche site I’ve always found it easier because there are so many resources but I utilize them.

I read 11+ feeds a day and I see what other people are doing and whats going on outside of my sphere and I take pieces from everyone I admire and I try to implement them. This is the first step. I don’t use an RSS feed place as others do, I prefer the XML in my browser top it is quicker to me and I stare at them to remind me to check them.

1 — Subscribe to RSS feeds.

Doing this you get to have the first hand update on the site, you get to see what people in the niche that is similar to you are writing, their writing styles what entries are popular and how they do what they do.

2 — Review!

If your niche is about products you don’t necessarily have to write a long review but write what you have to say with substance. Granted I don’t read the entire entry if it is long but I check for key points. I’m sure there are others so don’t worry about writing a novel sum it up!

3. Quote!

Sometimes you just don’t know what to say but it may be better to say less. Try quoting! If you haven’t much to say but you found a blog who did really well quote them and link back to them it not only promotes you but it will catch the eye of the original blogger and might get you some few extra hits :)

Randa Clay is a designer and marketing consultant providing a complete package of services that includes custom web site design, blog design and template customization, as well as custom logo design, print design and production. You can find her at any of these websites: randaclay.com , randaclay.com/lumps , printables4scrapbooking.com, freestuff4kids.net

5 ways to find out what your readers are interested in reading

There is a quote by Alice MacDougall that says “In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.” I would say this goes for blogging as well. Bloggers want readers. The way to get and keep your readers is to consistently give them the information they’re interested in. How do you find out what they’re interested in? Here are 5 ways:

1. Do you have a search form on your page? (you should) What are readers searching for? For example, I have a kids site where I have coloring pages, word searches, etc., and when I see in my stats that someone has entered something like “play money” in the search form, I make some printable play money and post it at the next opportunity.

2. What are your most popular posts? What posts have gotten the most comments? Write more like that.

3. Do a WordTracker trial or a search on Overture’s keyword tool around your main keywords. What are people searching for the most? Write posts around the items you find that are within the scope of your site.

4. Install MyBlogLog on your site and use the member pages to find out what other blogs your readers frequent, along with other things about them such as what they’ve tagged on del.icio.us, for example.

5. Where does your target audience hang out? What forums do they participate in? What problems are being discussed there? What are the topic areas in the forum? These should give you ideas about what your readers are interested in and what problems they’re trying to solve.

Now, I’m not trying to say if your blog is about underwater basketweaving, that if you find out a large number of your readers are interested in claymation that you should suddenly write lots of posts about claymation (you could start another blog about claymation and cross-promote them though). What I am saying is that if you find out that your readers are most interested in the different materials to weave their baskets with, spend more time writing about that than methods of drying out the baskets when they’re complete!